Monday, February 21, 2011

What Alan Shadrake, the English author who has been under arrest since July 2010 in Singapore for writing a book, Once a Jolly Hangman, critical of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's judicial system had said is turning out to be true time and time again.

Alan Shadrake had said without mincing any words, that Singapore' judiciary is corrupt and gives preferential treatment to those connected to the government or seen to benefit the government in one way or another, while others are given the blunt end of the stick.

Here we have another classic example of this abuse of legal process. Once again it is one law for the rich and connected, another for the poor.

American, Kamari Kenyada Charlton, aged 38, had been arrested last year for cheating numerous Australians of Croatian and Serbian descent of large amounts of cash by getting an accomplice to ring them claiming to be from their embassies and asking for money to have their relatives released from jail in Singapore.

He was given a jail term of 16 months and with the time already spent in jail and with 1/3 of the sentece remitted for good conduct, Charlton will be going home this July!

But what is more important in the Singaporean context is the fact that Charlton had overstayed his visa for 169 days, nearly 6 months, which under Singapore's draconian middle ages law, renders him liable to be caned, an unbearable torture of having to endure bloody beatings on his posterior, which always leaves permanent scars and very often permanent crippling physical and psychological disabilities; a Singaporean punishment which has been the butt of macabre jokes all around the world.

If the law was to be fairly administered, Charlton should also have been caned just as everyone else guilty of this crime; after all no one is above the law, or that is what we thought.

The law in Singapore mandates caning for males between the ages of 18 and 50 for the offense of overstaying their visas.

The only times when caning may be dispensed with is for medical reasons, when the victim of the caning may die as a result of a preexisting condition, such as weak heart or kidney disease.

Since Charlton was 38 years old, in perfect health and moreover an American football player, there is no way in the world, for him to be excused from the punishment which everyone else gets.

That is of course is if the Singapore legal system has the rule of law, which we see now in the Charlton's case, and time and time again in almost every other case, there is not.

Conveniently the court proceeded with only the cheating charges while the overstaying charge, which in this case is the most important, as it entails the most brutal punishment, is conveniently ignored.

In fact no Singapore media made any mention of it!

Without a free press, all this is conjecture of course, but I can only assume that in Charlton's case there was some pressure from the American embassy to favor their client.

Moreover Singapore does a great deal of trade with the US and is ever ready to lick the boots of Obama anytime and anywhere he wanted, and since trade and diplomatic advantage is on the line if Charlton gets a beating, best to give him some slack.

In any case who is there to complain anyway?

Singaporeans themselves are so terrified of Lee Kuan Yew and have retreated into their cocoons of indifference and silence long ago that there is not the slightest possibility of any complaint from that direction.

As for the rest of the world, the Americans are not going to complain and neither are the Europeans since this is the exact result they wanted.

If there is anyone complaining, it would be those hapless Indian and Bangladesh construction workers and coolies who have been beaten so badly and their buttocks mercilessly sheared and shredded into a mess of bloody flesh and hanging skin.

They probably overstayed in Singapore to make some money to send home to their impoverished families in India and Bangladesh.

But since there is no one to speak for them and no one will hear their cries anyway, who cares if they are beaten or even killed. In Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore they do not matter because they are unimportant and inconsequential to Singapore's diplomatic trade or business interests.

Not surprisingly Charlton's case went through some twists to arrive at this most favorable treatment.

He first engaged a controversial lawyer who has represented a death row inmate.

This lawyer, although Singaporean, had used some very unconventional practices in the Singaporean sense such as organizing public protests and claiming to have contacted the United Nations on his client's behalf.

Since all these tactics would only work in a free society, it appears that instead of helping his client's he has in fact made matters worse, while at the same time annoying Lee's government.

If this lawyer had got anything out of these unusual lawyering tactics in the Singaporean sense, it was publicity. But in Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew, publicity does not necessarily translate into winning cases.

In fact very often, it can be a serious impediment to success, if it is the wrong type of publicity, as in this lawyer's case.

It appears that while the government goes to great lengths to paint a positive picture of itself around the world, as a free fair and just society, all nonsense of course, this lawyer is shoving a spanner into the spokes and turning out to be a perpetual source of embarrassment for them.

Since in Singapore Lee Kuan Yew controls the legal system, as he does everything else, needless to say, when you annoy him, you are going to lose your cases in his courts.

Very quickly Charlton was advised, I suppose from those in the know, of his mistake in retaining this lawyer, when he switched to Anwarul Haq, a Lee Kuan Yew confidant who in turn gave it to another lawyer in the same preferred law firm, Rajah and Tann.

Charlton played his game with the Singapore legal system admirably.

He got rid of his lawyer who Lee Kuan Yew disapproved, got himself a lawyer who had his blessing and in the process, in a manner of saying, got away almost unscathed.

The important rule to remember in Lee's Singapore is this. Try to be Confucian in your thinking, which I suppose would mean, never upset the Emperor.

I suppose this is a tenet the young rambunctious ebullient lawyer in the death penalty case, and who lost a client in Charlton, is yet to learn.

I am sure the thousands of lesser mortals who had committed the same or even lesser crimes who were so mercilessly beaten in Lee Kuan Yew's jails would have cried foul to high heavens had they heard of how Charlton got away, but even if they did who cares? Lee Kuan Yew doesn't in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Friday, February 18, 2011

It would be impossible to explain the Singaporean as compared to any other human outside that island.

There are so many blatant abuses of power in the island under which they live, where anyone else would have complained and if their calls were ignored, they would have booted out their government by peaceful means or force.

But yet Singaporeans appear very satisfied since no one is complaining.

These are some of what is happening there which Singaporeans accept without complaint; which no other right thinking human being anywhere else would.

The most glaring among the misuses of power is Lee Kuan Yew, the man who has been running the island even longer than Cuba's Fidel Castro, paying himself and each of his family members and his chosen ministers a salary of $3.7 million a year, several times more than what the American President pays himself.

And not just that, he siphons off secretly even more of the state's assets.

Yet the average Singaporean taxpayer has no complaint about this blatant corruption of public funds.

The law is routinely misused to destroy anyone who complains about their lives in the island, through defamation actions with the collaboration of corrupt judges such as Belinda Ang Saw Ean.

These days the victim of this abuse of the legal process is Singapore Democratic Party's Dr. Chee.

In the past the target for his victimization was JB Jeyaretnam. He has since died.

I too have been the target of this ever since 1984 and today they will misuse the law to have me disbarred from practicing law in the island.

The average Singaporean on his part appears unconcerned and is perfectly prepared to live under a regime where the the law has been reduced to a tool for Lee's persecution of his people.

The Constitution is violated every day where fundamental human rights are openly denied.

Chee has been convicted and imprisoned for exercising the very rights that are guaranteed to him under the Constitution before the peoples very eyes.

Yet they do nothing.

They appear quite prepared to live literally at the mercy of Lee Kuan Yew and his friends.

Today hordes of foreigners are given settlement in the island deliberately calculated to take away the jobs of locals to bring the wages down.

As a result, Singaporeans become jobless while the recently arrived foreigners are happily working.

The average Singaporean can see this before his very eyes, yet he does nothing to complain.

The newspapers have been hijacked by Lee Kuan Yew and his friends who now control the entire media in the island.

Therefore what you read is only what Lee Kuan Yew wants you to hear, nothing else.

An entire generation of Singaporeans live under propaganda. Singaporeans are aware of this, yet they accept it willingly.

Till today, I am puzzled and at a loss explaining this life that Singaporeans live, which appears one of complete contentment no matter how much they are kicked.

A sort of abdication of all their rights they ever had to their ruler Lee Kuan Yew as if to say that they completely trust Lee Kuan Yew and will abide by anything he wants.

To put it rather crudely, it is as if the entire citizenry of Singapore has lined up in a neat row, pulled down their pants, exposed their buttocks and told Lee Kuan Yew to do as he pleases!

But yet, their ruler steals millions of dollars of their money, refuses to allow them freedom of speech or expression and misuses the law to bankrupt anyone who dares to complain.

A human being anywhere else in the world would call a man such as this Lee Kuan Yew nothing but a bully and would have fought him tooth and nail.

Singaporeans on the other hand, the ones that remain within the island, simply accept this abuse without any objection whatsoever.

There are of course those who don't like any of this and just pack their bags and leave for the west.

But those who stay behind in the island are simply content to live under Lee Kuan Yew and his family and friends and accept anything he wants, never mind how preposterous they are!

It is true that we do have men such as Chee and his Singapore Democratic Party who write a blog voicing these grievances.

But the blog does not reach the entire population like the newspapers do, which means that only a small percentage of the island get his message.

It may well be, and I would like to think so as well, that with time the readership of his blog would increase.

True, but then, with time, we are all dead.

Unless something else is done, even by a few people to resist these injustices, we would just have to be content thinking that Singaporeans are indeed an unusual people who do not have the normal impulses that people everywhere else would have.

If that indeed is the case, then all I have to say that it is a very sorry state of affairs, which by the way makes me happy to know that I Gopalan Nair continues to be a normal human being unlike these unusual Singaporeans.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

It is reported in the news that the Swiss government has frozen the recently overthrown Egyptian President Mubarak billions held there. Egypt has begun a probe to locate around the world the booty that he has stacked away and have them frozen and returned to Egypt as the proceeds of corruption and theft.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has not yet been overthrown and we do not know if he will. But we know that he, just as Mubarak, has amassed through corruption a vast fortune, as well as his family members. It is also rumoured that Lee Kuan Yew's fortune far exceeds that of Bill Gates and is supposed to exceed $80 billion.

Question now is, when he dies, and if his son whom he placed as the Prime Minister is booted out as many suspect he would, would the new Singapore go after his assets worldwide and put these men and women who have profited from corruption at the expanse of the average Singaporean on trial for corruption and embezzlement.

Any way you look at it, his paying himself $3.7 million is theft. We also know that he siphons off far more than that secretly which is why he is not prepared to disclose the accounting of the state wealth fund GIC or Tumasek.

No self respecting Singaporean should allow these cronies and lackeys with their billions in ill gotten gains to get away. Their time has to come too.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Alan Shadrake, the British author who was arrested in July 2010, in Singapore after he wrote a book which did not please the island's strongman Lee Kuan Yew is still in Singapore. He is literally a prisoner in the island, meaning, the island's police have confiscated his British passport thereby preventing him from leaving Singapore these last 6 months!

As far as I know, Singapore has not given him a work permit to work to maintain himself this long time, which means, unless you are a millionaire and can stay in hotels in Singapore at your own expense indefinitely, don't ever commit any offense in that island, because they will not only punish you, they would also financially ruin you as well.

Without a passport Shadrake cannot leave the island, and Lee Kuan Yew has instructed the airport not to let you leave, even if your embassy gave you another passport!

I guess the plan of this banana republic is this, it is not enough that you are punished by the court, you should also be ruined financially by forcing you to spend every penny you had, max out every credit card you have, and ruin your credit, by forcing you to keep spending your money in board and lodging in Lee Kuan Yew's island paradise for as long as they want!

I have read in Singapore's state controlled press that Shadrake had applied to leave the country and had promised to return for his trial, but they would allow no such thing. They told him that unless he put up an enormous sum of money, something like $80,000.00 in security, they insist that he remain in the island, and ruin himself!

Anyone can see that this is a disgraceful way to treat foreigners who ran foul of the law in Singapore. I can fully appreciate if the defendant is accused of serious crimes such as murder and has been denied bail. In such a case, one can understand why they won't let him go.

But Shadrake has not been detained. He is on bail. What is more, his arrest and conviction is illegal as a violation of his human rights of free speech. Even if it was a crime under Singapore's laws, it is a very minor one after all. In such a case there can be no justification at all to detain his passport and financially ruin him by refusing to let him leave and carry on with his life.

I am not suggesting at all that foreigners be treated any better than locals. But I am suggesting that the realities of a foreigner forced to remain in Singapore for long perioods should not be forgotten.

It is obvious that their situation is not the same as those living in that island. A Singaporean on bail is not prejudiced as he carries on with his normal daily life, continues to earn a living while the law takes it's course. But foreigners are different. They don't live there. They earn a living elsewhere. By forcing them to remain within the island for months or years at a time, by confiscating their passports is unjustly punishing him twice.

Singapore is a country that has no sense of decency or proportion whatsoever. It appears as a country with no shame. It simply does not care what anybody else thinks of them.

Any decent country worth it's salt would have some concern what the international community thinks of them. In a case involving a foreigner charged with a minor offense such as this, they should realise that he would be unfairly prejudiced if he is not dealt with immediately. Foreigners should be charged immediately, their cases heard within a few days and if there is an appeal, that too should be dealt with expeditiously. If that is not possible, they should be given work permits to earn an income for their upkeep over the long months. Merely confiscating their passports to ruin them financially is really a shameful act.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Starting from the first letter of the alphabet, A, a search on Singapore's lawyers would reveal an astonishing fact, which is, Singapore's lawyers display an almost total disinterest in lawyering, when it comes the most important duty of a lawyer, and upon which every other law depends, the defense of human rights!

And I am not just talking about a few lawyers, but the entire legal profession in that island is that way. They have no interest at all in defending any client who claims his human rights have been violated! They never have, and they never will.

Beginning with the letter A, lets start with one of the largest law firms in the country, Khattar Wong and Partners. It's website shows under the letter A, Abdul Rashid Gani. He is listed as a Senior Partner. His practice areas encompass almost every speciality, from Arbitration to Shipping. He has been practicing in the island for nearly 40 years if not more.

But the disgraceful common denominator between him and every other lawyer there is this; he deliberately distances himself from the most important piece of legislation not only in Singapore but every other civilized country in the world, theConstitution.

Either he has never heard of articles 14 and the related articles in it, which protect the rights of his countrymen against violations of their rights, which obviously cannot be the case, or even if he has heard of them, he wants nothing to do with it.

For 40 years or so, in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, he, just as his fellow lawyers there, have managed to practice a form of law which has nothing to do with any of these rights and carefully separated those provisions from the other work he does such as contracts!

Gani is about 60 or 70 years old. I am not sure how, this long dexterous two- headed career, which is to pretend to be a full lawyer but actually only half, minus the Constitution, can be rewarding. I wonder whether when he looks at the mirror, does he see a full face of a lawyer or only half the face, devoid of the Constitution!

His law firm is www.khattatwong.com, his Email is abdulrashid@khattarwong.com. Phone; (65)6238 3009. If you contacted him, frankly, I don't think he will have anything definitive to say.

Gani is this way either because he is a man who has no care or concern for the plight of his fellow Singaporean or he is this way because he fears being a real lawyer representing Lee Kuan Yew's victims of persecution will anger the dictator which may have deleterious effects on his career.

But Abdul Rashid Gani is not alone in his unwholesome indifference when it comes to the rights of his fellow men. The entire Singapore legal profession is this way, with the sole exception perhaps of the lawyer who is now making waves in Singapore for defending Alan Shadrake, the English author in trouble for writing a book critical about the Singapore legal system.

Going through the lawyers of this firm we see next Amarjeet Singh Senior Counsel. His seniority has only gone to the extent of defending criminal defendants, but at no time has he ever argued or will dare to argue that these laws which deny the right to free speech and assembly and association are unconstitutional; no he will never do that because that means getting into Lee's bad books which is not good for making money.

You can go down the lawyer list yourself in the firm's website but you will see nothing but bums, all of them. Not a single one there would have stood up for Chee's human rights, a man whose rights have been routinely abused, repeatedly charged and sent to jail.

Not just him. In the entire history of Singapore, there has not been a single lawyer who is prepared to do the obvious, which is, to be a lawyer and not a coward.

And mind you, these men and women are according to Singapore's opinion, the very best lawyers in the country, which begs the question, if these are the best lawyers, then why do we need bad ones!

Many of these men and women are in their late 60s and 70s. With the repeated lawsuits and criminal charges by Lee against human rights activists and foreign newspapers critical of him, Singapore's legal profession has been thoroughly discredited which explains why today they find it almost impossible to get new entrants to the profession.

In fact for an island with 5 million people, my guess is that there are only 3,000 or less lawyers in practice, as the Singapore Law Society refuses to disclose how many lawyers there are. I expect that with the death or retirement of these aging lawyers, the Singapore legal profession may disappear altogether or there will be foreign lawyers from China replacing Singaporean ones.

Lee's and his legal profession's bad name today both locally and abroad is occasioned entirely by the Internet. This blog the Singapore Dissident also hurts him badly since what appears in it is not entirely flattering of him or his legal profession.

But circumstances are simply working against him. Unlike Saudi Arabia, North Korea or Burma, he is unable to muzzle the Internet because the consequences of that is worse for his claimed international city which we know it is not.

As an example this blog's statistics show that for Singapore alone since May 2010, it has had about 160,000 page reviews. That is a great number of people reading Singapore Dissident in Singapore which hurts his plans for total control. This blog and the Internet constantly keeps Singaporeans and the rest of the world reminded as to what dirty tricks are being played on them by the regime to keep them in bondage.

Gani just as all the other so called lawyers in Singapore will continue to push the paper the way Lee Kuan Yew wants and in return they will live their uneventful boring mundane lives. They will never ever really practice the law as lawyers do around the world. They have no burning passions, no strong opinions, no nothing, simply wasted lives and wasted careers lived solely to please a master.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Singapore watchers would have no doubt whatsoever that Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party believes in the power of peaceful protest against despots, the likes of Lee Kuan Yew. He has himself engaged in it at a very heavy price, being repeatedly jailed for it.

Chee's belief in protests as a vehicle for change is evident once again in today's Singapore Democrat his party online blog, www.yoursdp.org, where he prominently has 2stories on it.

One headline at the very top of his page reads "Jasyln Goh congratulates Egyptian opposition leader", Singapore Democrats, Feb 13, 2011 about Goh, a member of his party congratulating Ayman Nour, an Egyptian opposition politician, having met him earlier in Cairo, on his successfully overthrowing Mubarak through Tahrir Square's peaceful protests.

The other story, which also prominently appears a little further down on the same front page page reads "How non violent protests defeat injustice", an article by Niclous Mills of CNN,http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/12/mills.egypt.selma/index.html?hpt=C2. It compares the recent successful overthrowing of Mubarak in Cairo with the peaceful protests of American Martin Luther King Jr, and why there should be no doubt whatsoever on the power of peaceful protest to overcome tyranny anywhere in the world.

I have known all along Chee's belief in it, and that is why, thankfully we are both on the same page as far as Singapore is concerned.

So my next question to him is this, why have you stopped? We have not had another peaceful protest for several months now since the last Tak Boleh Tahan protests. Of course protesting in Singapore comes with a price, as it does in Egypt or in any other totalitarian regime in the world. But that price is worth paying as Egypt has clearly shown us.

It should be wrong to misunderstand Singaporeans. One hears very often that Singaporeans are averse to such things as protests, they only want to make money, they are selfish, blah blah blah. Well my question to these nay sayers is this, how do you know that? Have you forgotten that Singaporeans in their earlier days were very political people? Have you forgotten the numerous strikes for better wages and conditions in the 1960s and the struggle to end British occupation?

If Singaporeans have not protested for the last 30 years or so, it is not because they have no opinions about anything, it is because Lee Kuan Yew has made the peaceful exercise of these fundamental rights enjoyed by anyone else in the world, illegal and severly punished. So instead of acting normally as anyone else would, the Singaporean goes into his cocoon of indifference and apathy about anything that goes on about him.

I keep writing in this blog to persuade Singaporeans to do the right thing to stand up to the despot there. I am an American citizen. I personally have nothing to gain, other than having the satisfaction of having done the little I could to make Lee Kuan Yew's repressive control over his people a little more unpleasant for him. Perhaps a few more reading this blog would realize the repression under which they live and do something about it.

In fighting repressive and dictatorial regimes around the world, everyone's effort, no matter how small does make a difference. It is the continuing effort of men like myself abroad who write and those in Singapore like Chee and his associates who keep up the pressure on the despot, that eventually brings him down. What really matters is the credibility of the ruler. If he loses it, like Lee Kuan Yew now, he loses everything.

I can assure you my entanglements with the Lee Kuan Yew over the last 27 years from 1984 has hurt him, there is no doubt about it.

When I was in Singapore practicing law in the 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew brought a series of false disciplinary actions against me, such as suspending me from practicing law for 2 years merely because I wrote a letter to the then Attorney General asking questions and being fined for a making a speech at an election rally in 1991 on the appointment of subordinate Court judges.

Of course Lee was doing this following the Chinese saying of "Kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys". In other words he wanted to warn other lawyers not to be like me to criticize him or challenge his authority. The consequence of these actions were completely unexpected and backfired very badly. It is true that he frightened all the lawyers, but he was so successful in it, so much so that after these cases and those against the late JB Jeyaretnam, nearly half the legal profession resigned in disgust and left for Australia for settlement!

Now the Law Society of Singapore has refused many times to tell me over the phone how many lawyers are practicing in Singapore, demanding that I write a letter to them first! I have no doubt they are embarrassed to tell me the figure. Perhaps it has come down as low as 2,000 from the 3,000 reported some time ago. Imagine that, only 2,000 lawyers in an island of 5 million people!

If Chee now commenced public peaceful protests, no doubt Lee Kuan Yew would have everyone arrested and charged. But the question is whether this would do Lee any good? I think not. Of course he would frighten Singaporeans even more, but on the whole he would be losing. The emigration rate to the West, high as it is, would become even higher. For a small island such as this, it is simply not not feasible. Lee would be left with no Singaporeans at all in his Singapore island.

By any reckoning, I think the Singapore government is very weak now, being hit on all sides. You have unstoppable emigration, lack of babies, insufficient English language speakers in government departments, spiralling crime rate and ever increasing income gap.

Lee Kuan Yew should now rethink both the wisdom of Machiavelli or the Chinese saying about killing the chicken. It now seems that killing that proverbial chicken is ending up in his having more problems, not less. For one, this one Chicken whom he killed, Gopalan Nair, is now turning to hurt him more from the grave than he when he was alive!

I am sure Chee has protests in his mind. If he does not do it now, which I think is as opportune a time as any other, he will do it when Lee Kuan Yew kicks the bucket, which I think is just around the corner anyway. But do it, he will. I think now is as good a time as any other for any Singaporean to take that bucket to Lee Kuan Yew's house in Oxley Road, Singapore. He may even want to kick it, the bucket that is, tomorrow.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Friday, February 11, 2011

If you arrived at Singapore for a visit, no one can blame you if you thought it was a regular normal island republic. In fact you cannot be further from the truth. It is an island run by a people who have lost their sense of proportion or humanity. It is a place which has the highest per capita execution rate in the world. It is also a place where in this day and age, they brutally beat criminals convicted in their Kangaroo courts without a jury for even seemingly minor offenses such as overstaying their visas.

Singapore does not have trial by jury for criminal cases. Moreover the judges there openly misuse their office to please the strongman Lee Kuan Yew to eliminate political opponents. In these circumstances, as Singapore judges are free to do anything they want with impunity, there is no guarantee that verdicts are fair or just. Almost always the rights of Singaporeans without political connections to Lee's party are denied. Alan Shadrake in his book "Once a Jolly Hangman" gives us a clear account of this systematic abuse of the law against the poor and underprivileged, who are almost always brutally beaten (which they call 'caning") as a punishment.

Caning is a Singaporean punishment so cruel and painful that I doubt it occurred even in the middle ages. And mind you it is meted out even for offenses so minor as vandalism or overstaying a visa. This is how this brutality is done. The man is strapped to a wooden frame, naked except for straps of cloth strapped around his legs as protection, exposing only his buttocks.

A prison officer who is trained to use maximum force in the beating, uses a rattan cane, about 6 feet long which was soaked in brine the night before to make it supple. The cane itself is about an inch in diameter at cross section.

The maximum number of beatings allowed is 24.

A doctor is in attendance watching presumably to ensure the poor man does not die or suffer a heart attack. If he passes off during the beatings, he revives him, to be beaten some more.

Singapore's protocol for the beating is as follows. The beater takes a few steps back and then almost runs forward and come down hard with maximum force with the cane on the victim's exposed buttocks. The reason presumably for the beater to run a few steps is to combine his forward motion with his hand striking the victim is to increase the force of the impact on the victim's bare buttocks, designed to cause maximum pain possible.

Very often even the fist stroke tears into the soft bare skin and the victim begins to bleed while screaming out in excruciating pain. With even 3 strokes the buttocks is completely bloodied and the man is screaming in pain to hingh heavens and desperately struggling to wriggle out from under the straps by which he is held.

I think you have got the picture and there is no need to go on. The disgrace and the shame of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, which he claims to be a first world country is the reason why thousands upon thousands of it's inhabitants leave the island permanently for settlement abroad. Even if we ourselves are not brutalized and tortured in this way, it is disgraceful for anyone to claim to be a citizen of Singapore, a place which unashamedly resorts to extreme brutality and torture in the name of the law.

And not just Singaporeans are sick and tired of this shame which is done in their name. Foreigners who are aware of such cruel beatings in Singapore are in fact avoiding the island completely and many skilled people who would have worked in the island have instead decided to give it a pass. They don't want to live in a place like Singapore where human beings are treated even worse than animals. Frankly I don't think there was ever a dog that was subjected to such cruelty.

So if you are a foreigner reading this, I ask you not to enrich Singapore by visiting it, because doing so only enriches this disgraceful dictatorship.

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore that beats and hangs people for even petty offenses should be condemned and shunned.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

I have not yet heard as to when Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Law Society (it is true, he completely controls it) and the Singapore judges (Lee's Kuan Yew's as well) will hear my case and have me disbarred in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, which we all know in certain.

I intend to use the disbarment to full political advantage, to once again show the world that Singapore's "rule of law" is simply nothing more than "Lee Kuan Yew's law" and their legal system is no different than that of the People's Republic of China where the law is used as a political tool principally to further Lee's interests.

As my purpose is to expose the fascist dictatorship which is Singapore, this impending disbarment will be another golden opportunity to tell the world as to what the legal system of Singapore really is.

Under the ethics rules of the State Bar of California, as an active practicing lawyer, I have to report any finding of wrongdoing against me in any part of the world to them, as misconduct anywhere in the world renders me liable to discipline in California. I will be posting the facts of the Singapore court's finding and my defense against it in this blog.

I would expect the State Bar of California to write to the Law Society of Singapore for their views before they (State Bar of California) make a finding. I expect to be completely exonerated of all blame of course. I have tried to the best of my ability to lay the groundwork to show not only the subject matter of the discipline was completely unjustified, the actions of the Singapore Law Society through their Audrey Lim Yoon Cheng in deliberately obstructing me in may defense, as well as their refusal to give me safe immunity from prosecution for the actions I had done since returning to the US, had made their in absentia hearing in Singapore inevitable.

If either Law Society of Singapore does not respond to the queries of the State Bar of California or if they do, either way they are done for, since these proceedings should never have been brought. I will be asking the State Bar of California permission to post every step of the proceedings here in my blog.

I look forward to the Singapore court's finding. My hope is that this will not only alert the State Bar of California to the goings on in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore's courts, it will also be picked up by legal systems around the world, who may even for the first time realise that it is not the Republic of Singapore but Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. If, through these proceedings, I am able to show that the Singapore law courts are nothing more than Kangaroos courts to keep Lee in his seat, even more damage will be done to the mirage of Singapore.

I understand there are no more than 3,000 lawyers in Singapore island of 5 million people and day by day, the profession is shrinking. My disbarment there would help to heighten the numbers resigning as well as damaging their reputation, or the lack of it, as a location for arbitration.

I must thank Lee Kuan Yew and his minions for this new opportunity to expose them once more. You know, by a strange twist of circumstances, whenever a dictatorship like Singapore comes after you, instead of hurting you, it actually furthers your interests while hurting themselves in the process. I can only wish that they will do more of the same.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

The news of the fall of Egypt's dictator for 30 years, Hosni Mubarak has certainly taken everyone by surprise. Who would have ever dreamed of this even a month ago. Mubarak thought he can rule forever. After all he had the Americans backing him and we all know that up till now at least America was very willing to support all sorts of tyrants, as long as their interests were protected. Some American supported dictators come to mind, the Shah of Iran, General Pinochet and Ferdinand Marcos. But after today, if any dictator ever thought that it was business as usual, they have something else coming.

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore and Hosni Mubarak's Egypt had striking similarities. In Singapore Lee Kuan Yew continues to rule, even though he denies it, since last 50 years. In Egypt's case, it was 30 years. Mubarak amended the constitution to retain emergency powers to overcome the courts. Lee Kuan Yew has the Internal Security Act for detention without trial. Mubarak systematically neutralized civil society and opposition parties leaving only the Muslim Brotherhood and himself with nothing in between. In Singapore the opposition has been relentlessly harassed and intimidated so as to completely weaken them, so much so that there is not a single opposition party with either the organization nor the establishment to replace Lee's PAP.

If anyone thought that revolutions need masses of hungry people to reach a point at which they will explode and storm the palace and without this element dictators are safe, they could not have been more wrong. Egypt's revolution did not comprise only of the poor, but it had also had students, young graduates, professors and businessmen. If we have learnt one thing from Cairo, it is this; man does not live by bread alone. He also needs freedom. And sooner or later the people demanding their freedom will either explode and storm Number 8, Oxley Rise, Singapore 9, the Singaporean dictator's residence or they will leave the country permanently.

You have seen today, the massive brain drain out of the Singapore, the almost non existent childbirth and almost noone wanting to get married. This is indeed a form of protest, Singaporean style. The mass exodus of people leaving the island for settlement abroad are sending a message to Lee Kuan Yew, which is, if this is how your run your place, we want no part of it.

And those refusing to have any babies in Singapore are sending the same message to the dictator, which is, that Singapore is not a suitable place to bring up a family; and children do not grow up well in dictatorships.

I can tell you that Gopalan Nair is not an aberration. There are thousands of Gopalan Nairs in Singapore because anyone who can think is capable of questioning Lee Kuan yew's style of government. Why should a tax payer simply allow Lee Kuan Yew to do anything he wants? Why should anyone stand aside and allow him to pay himself 3.7 million dollars a year? Why should not anyone who can think question such laws as the prohibition against free speech and expression, violations of the Constitution? Why should anyone have to register a society before it can function?

All these laws are put in place for one reason alone, which is to permit Lee Kuan Yew and his family to continue in power. If Gopalan Nair can see that, any other Singaporean capable of thinking can see that too.

But until now, the fear of what Lee Kuan Yew can do to you if you question him prevents almost anyone from open criticism. If there is discontent, it is either in private or anonymously. So instead of standing up to him, they just leave the island for good and settle in the West.

Just look at the comments which are posted in this blog. Almost all are anonymous, which explains the tremendous chill that runs down the spine to even contemplate such an act.

But the question is, will there come a time in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, when the educated professors, teachers, businessmen and students, as well as the poor and the rich, in fact every segment of society, just as in Egypt, rally together in public protests and demand "Down with the Dictator, Down with Lee Kuan Yew". I am not sure but you can never tell, can you? After all who would have thought this will happen in Egypt. If it can happen in Egypt, why not in Singapore?

America has also shifted it's geopolitical thinking, it appears, since now it is surprisingly backing Egypt's protesters which only yesterday was unthinkable. The thinking perhaps in Washington now is that it serves American interests better by siding with democracy and not just American business interests. If that is true, if ever the people of Singapore decided to give Lee Kuan Yew the boot, I think you can look to America as a friend. To me, if this change in American policy, if indeed it is one, is certainly a step in the right direction.

So my message to Lee Kuan Yew and his son Gamal Mubarak, no, Lee Hsien Loong, is this. Try to arrange your billions stacked in Switzerland and elsewhere securely. You never know, they may be seized or frozen if there ever was another uprising in Singapore like Cairo. And good luck to you.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

As you are aware, Lee Kuan Yew's courts had ruled that unless Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the opposition Singapore Democratic Party leader came up with $20,000.00 by the 20th of February, 2011, today, as his court ordered punishment for speaking without a permit in Lee's Singapore, he must go to jail for 20 weeks. Lee's nefarious plan, just as all his others to demolish the opposition was to position Chee's jailing to coincide with the general elections so he will be hampered in leading his party at this crucial time.

As Chee did not have the money, he appealed for donations on the Internet with the help of other online organizations and in the nick of time, managed to get the money. Of course Chee is happy, his SDP is happy and so are all the others who feared for his party and the opposition had they been denied his leadership at the hustings.

But really is this a great achievement? Is this a sign that Singaporeans have now picked up the courage to stand behind him, his party and the cause of freedom. I hate to dampen any one's jubilation but going by the figures, I am not really sure.

Remember all Chee needed was $20,000.00. It wasn't $200,000.00 or $2 million, a paltry sum not only by Singapore's standards an island flush with money but an island of 5 million people which includes, allegedly, some of the richest people in the world. But even this sum was hardly forthcoming because even at last week's count only $5,000.00 was collected and I understand only yesterday, did it pass the required mark.

If it was so difficult to collect even this sum in an island such as Singapore, I think instead of jubilation one really has to begin to worry. It does not appear that there is overwhelming demand for democracy or for real change.

And the election results are so predictable, that bookmakers would go out of business if they took bets. I can tell you what the results are going to be. First as predicted almost every seat goes to Lee Kuan Yew's PAP. Second, if they took all the seats without giving the opposition any, it will look bad as a one party state. So for window dressing, Low Thia Khiang and Chiam See Tong will keep their seats. But since the international community is demanding more democracy in the city state, it is necessary to allow a few more for window dressing.

Who then is good for window dressing, someone who would merely give speeches and go away. I think Kenneth Jeyaretnam fits the bill. By letting him enter Parliament, it is a win win situation for the dictator. First Lee will ride the high horse and claim generosity and magnanimity by saying he let the son of his arch nemesis enter Parliament, and therefore he is fair, just and all those criticise him as a greedy brutal corrupt tyrant have all got it wrong.

Recently the Australian, James Gomez has been proclaiming his intent to contest the Singapore elections. In Lee Kuan Yew's books he is not a constructive opposition person but a destructive one. That is because the Australian really means business, not the Kenneth Jeyaretnam sort who will not rock Lee Kuan Yew's boat and Lee does not does not want such people at any cost. Even before he steps into the ring, the Australian will be branded a liar cheat and what not and that is the end of him, like it was in 2006.

You see Singaporean politics is a game, which Lee Kuan Yew plays with all the chips in his hand. He controls the newspapers, the courts, the media, the unions, the civil service, everything. With that sort of power neither Chee, or anyone else doesn't stand a chance.

That is why sometimes I wonder why all this excitement in Singapore about elections when everyone knows the opposition doesn't have a chance in the world. It is going to be the same again for another 5 years and I am not sure how many more 5 years thereafter.

That is why I have always repeated my mantra which I have done now for a long time. What the opposition has to do is to rock the very foundations of the island through mass protests. There are many burning issues that opposition politicians, real ones that is, can manipulate to move the masses. Playing by Lee Kuan Yew's rules at elections is not going to do it. I am not suggesting that the opposition boycott it. What I am saying is that elections should be merely a side show of a side show. The real action should be on the streets of Singapore in man's God given right to peaceful protest.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The term "running dogs" is part of Singapore's history beginning with the Communist uprising, a derogatory term in Chinese, which the Communists used for those who collaborated with the British. It means a servile person or a lackey, who runs around for his master like a dog for personal gain.

Lee Kuan Yew today runs a government comprised entirely of these despicable running dogs, men and women who have no conviction, principles or strong beliefs about anything. In today's Singapore one enters politics to sing Lee Kuan Yew's tune, which means career advancement, money and security; not because anyone had any individual ideas about anything.

Lee Kuan Yew's PAP Centers, Resident Committees, Citizen Consultative Committees, the Peoples Association, colloquially called grass roots organizations, are all organizations to which these running dogs make a bee line for, where they will grovel and lick his boots, in the hope they will be recognized by him and the hope of the consequential benefits and largess that will follow; bums all of them who have no shame or the slightest of self respect.

In Singapore lawyers have no views about the law except that espoused by the Lee government; civil servants have no qualms about persecuting opposition politicians in housing, jobs and careers; and judges have no independent ideas about the law except to do as Lee Kuan Yew demands. In Singapore the label great lawyer or judge does not mean the subject of the praise has any skill or wisdom, it simply means that the individual is a thoroughly trusted lackey of Lee Kuan Yew, willing to do any trick that is demanded of him.

A government such as this, depending on one man alone brings to mind what is happening in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak has been Egypt's Lee Kuan Yew for 30 years, controlling the press, the judiciary, curtailing human rights and basically ruling over the Egyptians as the slaves of a Pharaoh. Just as the saying Egypt is the Nile and the Nile is Egypt, you could also say that Egypt is up till now Mubarak and Mubarak is Egypt, or so we thought.

But look at the situation now, something we could not even dream even a couple of years ago. Mubarak is about to be overthrown and suddenly people wonder what is going to happen to Egypt without him. Mubarak's fingers were at the pulse of every Egyptian organ of state and no one could move without him. I fear Egypt will descend into chaos once he goes.

I fear, the fate of Egypt will be exactly the same for Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew is either pushed out or kicks the bucket. Everything and everybody in Singapore functions at Lee Kuan Yew's behest just as it is in Egypt under Mubarak. No one in Singapore has any personal initiative or any self respect as any individual capable of acting independently. Success does not come with individual effort alone, it comes with Lee Kuan Yew's endorsement.

It is the same with all dictatorships. When the dictator goes, the running dogs are incapable of suddenly adopting leadership roles, as their entire lives were spent doing nothing but licking the dictator's boots.

I am sure a great many Singaporeans are aware of this looming danger on Lee's impending demise or his overthrow, which explains why so many Singaporeans are leaving the island with whatever they have before it is too late. Foreigners have now overtaken local Singaporeans in numbers in their own island, making Singapore now an unstable dysfunctional society where people come to work temporarily for a few years for some money before leaving. I am sure just as I do, many are watching the effects of this constantly changing Singaporean population and whether the pressures on it would be so great that it will collapse alltogether.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Monday, February 7, 2011

People abroad have a vastly different opinion of Singapore than what Singaporeans themselves know. Whenever I talk to Americans about the pathetic lives they live under a repressive regime, with about a third of the population either at or below the poverty line cooped up in their crowded pigeon hole government owned apartments stacked one above the other, they seem surprised.

Surely they say Singaporeans have no need to protest since they live comfortable lives although with some very strange laws such as chewing gum ban and caning for criminals. By the way the general perception abroad is that you are caned on the spot if you are found chewing gum! But for these rather strange laws, what are they complaining about they say, since there are no beggars on the streets like in Jakarta or Cairo and everyone seems as content as mother hen at her roost.

By the way I have had many ask me whether it is illegal in Singapore to break wind (fart) in public! You may have heard that yesterday, the government of Malawi in Southern Africa had passed such a law and anyone caught doing it will be fined. You know people consider Singapore so strange a place with the ridiculous anti chewing gum law that they reckon if there was ever any other weird laws, Singapore would be the place to have them! I have told them that as far as I know this Malawi law has not been introduced in Singapore but I do warn them that they are dealing with a very strange man there (Lee Kuan Yew) and he may well follow the Malawi example and imprison anyone who farts. Remember it is Unique Singapore!

With Lee Kuan Yew's state controlled newspapers who churn out the never ending good news on a daily basis without fail, no one outside will ever hear the truth as to how the poor suffer, even though it may not be visible to the naked eye.

I have read several reports from non Lee Kuan Yew state controlled sources that as much as one third in the island live in poverty. With the absence of state welfare, many Singaporeans and their children have to go hungry while the income disparity between the rich and the poor is one of the hishest if not the highest in the world.

If such a miserable life is not bad enough, you have Lee Kuan Yew's political repression, such as jailing a blogger like myself in 2008, jailing Dr. Chee Soon Juan for public protests and silencing any criticism in the media through contempt of court charges and crippling damage awards.

But because Lee Kuan Yew makes sure that his punishments never go to extremes such as murdering innocent people, the rest of the world fail to see the terrible repression under which they live and the suffering they have to endure.

As long as there is no spokesmen for the downtrodden Singaporeans which the world can witness, Lee Kuan Yew's repression of his people will continue to go unnoticed. Of course I write this blog and some or even many may read it, Dr. Chee Soon Juan would also write his blog articulating their plight but as long as he does not take real physical publicly visible measures such as public protests on their behalf, the rest of the world would continue to be hoodwinked by the Singaporean despot.

Of course there is no doubt Singapore would completely fail in due course. With the non stop brain drain, national service deserters who refuse to return, the languishing legal profession, falling childbirth and mounting emigration there is no hope for the Tiny Red Dot, a derogatory term coined by a former Indonesian president fed up with the arrogance of the Singapore strongman.

But if you want to see Singapore's distatorship fall a little quicker, then Dr. Chee has to act now. There has to be protests which will alert the world to what is going on there. Without such public displays of civil disobedience, the World will continue to think that Singapore is indeed the Disneyland with the Death Penalty but a Disneyland nevertheless.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

With the unremitting brain drain out of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, a place discredited through Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorial one party rule, one of the major consequences of this naturally is the dearth of qualified professionals proficient in the English language, since they have the most opportunities of leaving Singapore for settlement in the West. And as expected, they continue to leave in droves.

The need for and the lack of English language competent people in Singapore is particularly acute in the case of an English newspaper, obviously, for reporters journalists and editors, since they have to write in the English language, and not in Mandarin Chinese.

The sad fact that Singapore is hurting very badly in this respect can be seen by the following article in the Straits Times online edition of Feb 5, 2011 by Lester Kok and Grace Chua, presumably both local Singaporean Chinese with English names titled "That predatory hunger for shark's fin".

From the title, we would have obviously imagined the story to be about some other sea creatures of the deep who have a taste for shark fin, perhaps killer whales or some other larger fish than the shark, who have now gone on a rampage to confront sharks and eat their fins; thus the title "That predatory hunger for shark's fin". Sea creatures are of course hunters and predators who hunt and prey on other smaller fish. At least that was what I thought the story was about!

Actually it is nothing of the sort. The story actually, and who would have thought, is about the Chinese people of Singapore who have a customary craving for shark fin soup, which we all know, and despite the latest trend to stop the cruelty against sharks, and save it from extinction, it talks of their unwillingness to forgo the dish.

Anyone with even rudimentary English would have realized that giving a story about Chinese culinary habits the title "That predatory hunger for shark's fin" is surely a mile off the mark! Where are the "predators" in the story! Was he referring to the Chinesse who eat the soup as predators? Surely one need not be a "predator" to enter a Chinese restaurant and order Shark fin soup!

The quality of the work of the state controlled Straits Times with writers such as this has become abysmally poor, not even comparable to that of an American 8th grade school newsletter in California. And with the unabated alarming outflow of even more educated Singaporeans leaving the island and with no one locally capable of writing wanting anything to do with a state controlled propaganda sheet such as this, you are on the slide down the slippery slope to compete incompetence.

I take pride in being at least partly responsible for exposing the rot of what Singapore has really become today and I am looking forward to seeing its major newspaper discredited even further as long as Lee Kuan Yew remains in control of his dictatorship.

Frankly there is no other way to put it. With writers such as this who talk about "predators" who eat shark fins soup, Singapore's Straits Times today is just rubbish, or as the Americans would say, simply garbage.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Friday, February 4, 2011

I wonder whether the Singapore government and their state controlled Law Society have actually thought out the wider ramifications of disbarring Gopalan Nair in Singapore, for criticizing Singapore judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean in this blog among others.

Gopalan Nair has been charged in Singapore with criticizing judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean over her judgement in awarding crippling large monetary award of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the politically based case of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singapore strongman suing his victim, the opposition politician Dr. Chee Soon Juan in 2008.

Additionally Gopalan Nair is also charged with behaving in a rowdy manner in public in Singapore on July 4, 2008, and shouting racial slurs at a Malay policeman in public, accusations which he denies in it's entirety, as well as reneging on a promise he gave to a Singapore judge in Singapore after he returned to California, as well as writing another blog in the same vein as the Belinda Ang Saw Ean blog from the US attacking another Singapore judge Judith Prakash (Kangaroo Judge) for her abuse of the law to punish free speech.

I have no doubt that I, Gopalan Nair, will be disbarred in Singapore, as we all know the modus operandi of Lee Kuan Yew's government which is to use the law to to silence dissent or better described in the ancient Chinese parable of killing a chicken to silence all the moneys, meaning, I am Lee's chicken, and the Singaporeans his monkeys.

We all agree that Lee Kuan Yew can do anything he wants in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. But have they ever considered that Gopalan Nair is presently also a member of English and Welsh Bars, being on the Rolls of Barristers of England and Wales; as well as an Attorney at Law licenced to practice in California and the US Federal Courts.

As a licenced California lawyer, are the Singapore authorities aware that I am supposed to report any Attorney related discipline or any other finding of misconduct in any part of the world to the State Bar of California, which renders me liable to discipline in California for misconduct anywhere in the world?

I have no doubt that these proceedings against me will not render me liable at the Bar of England and Wales or the State Bar of California. If ever England and Wales or California were to be pushed to make a finding on these events, it is more than probable that I would be commended rather than punished for having the courage to stand up to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and their corrupt legal system and judiciary.

So I wonder what the Singaporean authorities would do in a situation where I am disbarred from practicing law in Singapore, the ultimate punishment for the most egregious conduct on the part of lawyers whereas the legal professions of England and Wales nor California takes no action at all!

How will Singapore justify their finding of guilt and punishment against me? Would they be arguing that the Singapore standard of Attorney discipline is much higher than either England Wales or California and that is why Gopalan Nair is disbarred there but faces no discipline anywhere else? Or would they argue that England Wales or California all have weak discipline rules and their lawyers are all thugs and crooks while Singaporean lawyers are saints?

Also, it would be interesting to see how these proceedings against Gopalan Nair in Singapore will impact Singapore legal system's credibility. Would the world in fact buy Singapore's argument that this is how lawyers should or should not behave or will Singapore once again have egg in their face, as was the case when the International Bar Association humiliated and gave them a categorical beating when they reported in their 72 page decision some years ago that Singapore's courts are merely Kangaroo Courts which put away Lee Kuan Yew's critics to perpetuate his one party state rule?

I would of course be reporting in this blog the arguments put forward by the Singaporean judges for disbarring me which would make interesting reading for anyone interested in the goings on of Uniquely Singapore as they call themselves.

I have a feeling that the Singaporean authorities responsible for commencing these legal proceedings from as far back as May 2008, today regret their actions as they never expected the way in which it has turned out. Perhaps they realize this time, they picked the wrong victim whom they should have best left alone.

After arresting me for writing the blog in Singapore in May 2008, instead of just giving up, which I think they expected me to do, I kept the issue alive for a full six months in Singapore; enough time for the entire world to slowly realize what was being done in Singapore in the name of the law.

Not satisfied with that, after returning to California I have continued to write about their misuse of the law, which I expect prompted them to commence these disciplinary proceedings.

I am not sure but if I can guess, whoever's pea brained idea it was to start this thing against me in the first place, regrets very much starting what they did. Perhaps it would have been much better for them to just quietly deport me in May 2008, the moment I wrote the Belinda Ang Saw Ean blog, without all this, as that way they would have been at least partially saved from the huge worldwide embarrassment they now suffer.

Among others, I wonder whether my impending Singaporean disbarment would have any impact on Lee Kuan Yew's ambition of making Singapore, fist the legal hub of South East Asia, then Asia and then the World!

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Is it not enough for Singaporeans to be reminded daily of Singapore's descent into oblivion; that native Singaporeans are dying, there are no children being born, that almost to the man everyone who can is leaving the island, that foreigners will or have already replaced the local population, that very soon there will be no more real Singaporeans left!

For a small island nation like Singapore, you will be surprised how many live outside. There is one if not several Singapore associations in Wellington New Zealand, Auckland New Zealand, Sydney Australia, Melbourne, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I won't be surprised if there is a Singapore Association in Vladivostok, Eastern Siberia, Asiatic Russia!

The situation is precarious as anyone with eyes can see. It is so bad, it is now most certainly terminal. Like global warming Singapore's descent into total destruction is now almost beyond salvation, having passed the threshold of no return. Unless Singaporeans do something about it, the island is going to the dogs. It is literally descending into oblivion.

Today, if only you took the trouble to find out, you will know how dire the situation is. In Singapore's civil service, in an island where English is supposed to be the official business language, you have new Chinese immigrant workers incapable of even understanding simple English, because all the English speakers have gone. Can you imagine what this means? Official correspondence and memos are either not being sent or they are being sent illegible, because the civil servants lack sufficient English knowledge. Police officers are unable to write reports for lack of English.

This was not the situation in Singapore even as recently as 15 years ago, when the best and the brightest of Singapore's educated joined the Singapore Civil Service, a service modelled on that of the British. Today in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, it has been thoroughly discredited and seen as Lee Kuan Yew's tool to destroy his political opponents, resulting in massive resignations from it's ranks.

With huge numbers of Singaporean educated leaving, Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore finds it hard to replace those who left, given the fact that Lee does not want English speakers from Australia and the Western world for fear they may not be as submissive for his tastes, since Lee's ideal Singaporean is one who timidly submits to his dictates like a slave or an idiot.

With the diminishing talent pool of Chinese with English proficiency to cater for Lee Kuan Yew's political agenda, the point has reached now when there are simply not enough English speaking Chinese anywhere in the world whom he could use in Singapore.

You understand what this means of course. The remaining Singaporeans, who are themselves declining in numbers due to massive emigration and insufficient childbirth leave behind only those unskilled and uneducated who will simply not be accepted anywhere else. Increasing numbers of unskilled and unqualified Singaporeans mean productivity and competitiveness declining and Singapore as what we knew literally dispppearing into oblivion.

And here is my message to Dr. Chee and the others who care for Singapore. If you care for Singapore, do something tangible now. Merely writing the blog Singapore Democrat is all well and good, but that is not enough. Singapore is disappearing before your very eyes.

It is quite clear that the PAP cannot and will not do anything to save Singapore. They are destroying it by bringing in hordes of unskilled foreigners who do not improve the quality of Singapore at all. At the same time, they are doing nothing to stop massive brain drain which is almost completely emptying the island of it's skilled people.

If Dr. Chee did nothing more than writing blog articles and contesting elections for his party members, he knows he is will not get anywhere. Since Dr. Chee, as he himself has stated, wants history to judge him, persisting on doing the same is not going to achieve it. Instead of history crediting him with moving Singapore to democracy, it will say that he did nothing different for his entire political career except to fight elections which he consistently lost, write articles in his blog and to allow Lee Kuan Yew to repeatedly punish him.

Dr. Chee has always blamed Lee Kuan Yew for his inflexibility and inability to move with the times; capable of being Machiavelli and nothing more. It is true Lee Kuan Yew is guilty of that. But Dr. Chee is also guilty of the same mistake. For 30 years or so, all he has done is to contest elections which he invariably loses due to Lee's dirty tricks and nothing else. Surely if what he has done for 30 years has not worked, it is time he changed his game plan.

I do not believe that Singaporeans are so stupid as not to realize how they live as slaves under Lee Kuan Yew. I do not believe that Singaporeans are not aware that Lee Kuan Yew is insulting their intelligence by denying them their fundamental human rights. I do not believe that the entire Singapore population is a spineless gutless society of people like the minions who lick Lee Kuan Yew's boots for a living, such as K Shanmugam, the Tamil Minister for Law.

If Dr. Chee really wants history to look upon him as a man who stood up for Singapore, not just as a man who wrote blogs and contested elections which he knows he will lose, then he has to get off his seat and into some action. He has to publicly protest the injustices under which he and his fellow Singaporeans suffer. Of course there is a possibly that Singaporeans may not accept this and think of him more of a trouble maker than a statesman. But Dr. Chee knows and the world knows that in the present circumstances in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, the path of peaceful protest and civil disobedience is the only choice for meaningful change.

I may be wrong but this is what I believe. A man acts not because it produces results, he acts because it was right. When a man acts on what is right, it may not produce immediate results, but I am sure of one thing. It is the fastest path to victory which is absolutely certain.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The mass protests for democracy in Cairo and the Arab world should cause the Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew some concern. If these popular demands for change has taught us anything, it is that the days of tyrants and dictators having their merry way each time is gone. The Internet and mass communication both nationally and internationally has suddenly empowered the common man across the world from Cairo to Caracas. Now dictators all over the world including Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew should remember that it only takes a few to protest because they may become a million.

Singapore is no different from any other dictatorship anywhere; it does not have a free press; it does not allow it's citizens their fundamental rights of free speech expression and assembly; it jails its citizens without trial under the Internal Security Act; it uses the law as a tool with compliant corrupt judges like Belinda Ang Saw Ean to destroy political opponents and it has one of the largest secret police establishments for a country of it's size.

And Lee Kuan Yew should keep in mind that unless he shuts down the Internet like Egypt has done, Singaporeans are watching every single video coming out of Egypt of courageous Egyptians standing firm in the face of the might of the Egyptian army demanding what is rightfully theirs, their freedom, and they are now asking whether they too should demand their rights from Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Hosni Mubarak.

In crowded jam packed sardine can of Singapore where 5 million live in just a few square miles, it really does not take more than a few to start a riot. All it takes is a handful of Singaporeans to say enough is enough and take to the streets, and the next minute you will have another Cairo in the making.

I am waiting and watching just like anyone else interested in the goings on in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, as to when Singaporeans would finally stand up like their brave Egyptian friends and demand democratic change and an end to Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorship.

I have every confidence that it not only will happen, it will happen soon. The oppressed of Egypt have finally managed to prise open Pandora's Box and the people around the world including Singaporeans are, I am certain, going to shout Bloody Murder.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I am not sure about you, but I have a reason why I joined JB Jeyaretnam's Workers Party in 1984 and contested 2 general elections in Singapore; why I wrote to the Singapore Attorney General Tan Boon Teik in the 1980s and got myself suspended from practice for 2 years, why recently in 2008 I wrote a blog criticizing Lee Kuan Yew judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean who misused her judicial office when she punished opposition leader Dr. Chee Soon Juan, and it is this; Singapore insults my intelligence and I refuse to simply take it lying down.

Tell me if these things do not insult your intelligence? Why is it necessary for anyone to have to apply for a permit to give a speech in public? Why is it necessary to have to apply for a permit from Lee Kuan Yew government to peacefully protest in public? Why is it wrong to criticize a judge when she is shamelessly abusing her office? Why is it necessary to be a PAP supporter to advance in your career and punished if you were an opposition supporter?

Why are there no free press in Singapore and every single one is state controlled? Why are we not allowed to read real news instead of being dished out this rubbish propaganda?

It is all these things that makes one's blood boil. It is these things in Singapore that insults your intelligence.

You don't have to take this garbage anymore. Stand up to your rights. Protest, yell scream, do anything you can to make it known that you simply refuse to be insulted by this tin pot dictator any longer.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Predictably Singapore's propaganda department, Lee Kuan Yew's state owned and controlled newspaper the Straits Times on line edition of Feb 1, 2011 reports "Over 90% of Singaporeans happy with quality of life". Not surprising at all why the very very good news just now. After all the national elections are just around the corner and it is time to ratchet up the good news. This is how all one party state dictatorships like Singapore function around the world.

It says "Singaporeans have higher levels of confidence in the country's future and economy......", "When asked if they were satisfied with the way Singapore was being run, 96% said "yes"', etc etc. All very nice indeed, but the truth is, just as in dictatorships around the world, completely opposite. It is like the former Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestia churning out the good news in elephant size portions. In fact there was a joke in Russia those days. Pravda in Russian meant "truth" and Izvestia meant "news". The joke was, there is no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestia, because when wheat production has dropped rock bottom, they would say there was a bumper harvest; when unemployment was at 50%, they would say there was a shortage of workers; when people were going hungry, they would say they were having holidays in San Tropez!

You could say the same about Singapore's state controlled Straits Times; there is neither any "truth" or "news" in it. What else can you expect from a State Controlled newspaper anyway, except propaganda? This government report is from Reach, Lee Kuan Yew's feedback arm. I wonder what response you would have got from Dr. Chee Soon Juan if he was asked the same questions, not so rosy I suppose.

I am tempted to use stronger language when describing the nonsense being put out but I must refrain.

Let me ask Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew these questions. If indeed 90% of Singaporeans are happy with how things are going on there then can he explain the following?

1. Why are 2 people on average jumping off high rise buildings or jumping onto oncoming trains to commit suicide? Why? 2. Why are Singaporeans having the lowest fertility rate in the world, where Singaporeans are almost disappearing by the day, not by pestilence, not by wars, but because no once wants to bring up a family there. Why? 3. Why are almost every single Singaporean, capable of doing so, leaving the island permanently for settlement in the West. Why?4. Why are almost 80% of the students surveyed recently said they would prefer to live abroad if given the chance. Why? 5. Why are the children of almost every single judge, civil servant, teacher, businessmen either living or studying abroad and refusing to return to Singapore. Why? 6. Why is Lee Kuan Yew's grandson living overseas and refusing to return to Singapore. Why?7. Why are the 4 daughters of Singapore Kangaroo Judge Judith Prakash all living overseas and not in Singapore. Why? 8. Why is Gopalan Nair, the Singapore Dissident, living in the United States and relinquished his Singapore Citizenship for that of the USA. Why? 9. Why are the multitude of Singaporean students now studying in New Zealand, USA and Australia simply refusing to return to Singapore on completion of their studies. Why? 10. Why is it that the most talented people in the world prefer to move to the West while Singapore only gets those whom no other country wants, without any knowledge of even English? Why?

Are all these things happening because 90% of Singaporeans simply love Singapore as the state controlled propaganda department so proudly says? Do you take us all for a bunch of morons?

The truth is simply the opposite. The people of Singapore simply detest the lives they live and are all clamouring to get out of that "paradise".

My message to Singaporeans before the elections is this. It is the duty of every person who loves freedom to obstruct baulk harm and disrupt the Lee Kuan Yew government as much as possible.

If you agree, then do anything you can to harm the Lee Kuan Yew government . Place any impediment you can in their way. Vote for the opposition. If not spoil the vote but never vote PAP. If for some reason you cannot do either and since voting is compulsory, simply leave the island before election day so you don't have to vote.

Otherwise send your children abroad for an education and tell them not to return. Don't have any babies at all if you live in Singapore, as the paucity of a population hurts the Lee Kuan Yew government the most. If you can emigrate overseas for your own good and future, as there is no future under Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. If you are abroad, discredit the Lee Kuan Yew government at every oppurtunity, to your friends colleagues both publicly and privately.

In other words, if you cherish freedom, try and hurt the Lee Kuan Yew government anyway you can, either from within Singapore or outside.

We all want to see the fall of this dictatorship and each one of us, in your own way can contribute to it's fall. What is happening to Hosni Mubarak and his son should happen to Lee Kuan Yew and son. Work at it my friends. We will after all see the back of Lee Kuan Yew one way or another.

We have to make Lee Kuan Yew realize that he cannot run Singapore on propaganda alone. He has to have the co-operation of the people which we should deny him.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

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About Me

Determined to find the Truth.
Born Singapore, educated Winstedt School 2 (next to Monks Hill in Newton, Singapore) Raffles Institution, National Service, some travel in Europe, then law studies England, return to Singapore, practiced for 10 years, active Workers Party member, stood elections 1988 and 1991 in Singapore, was harassed and persecuted by Lee Kuan Yew for my political beliefs, left for USA, obtained asylum and admitted California State Bar, practice law ever since in Fremont California near San Francisco. Relinquished Singapore citizenship 2005 because I was not prepared to permit Lee Kuan Yew to unjustly retain my CPF funds if I remained Singapore Citizen. On principle, the only correct thing for me to do was to give it up, for my CPF funds. I am an American Citizen as of 2004.